The refusal of Hameed to appear before the senate, the Upper
Legislative Chambers, on Wednesday demanded that the Comptroller General
of Nigerian Customs Services, NCS, Col. Hameed Ali(rtd) must resign his
appointment, stressing that he was unfit for his position.
Recall that the Senate had last Thursday ordered Ali to appear before
it today after Senators worked out on him during plenary over his
refusal to appear before them in uniform last week.
However, the Customs boss had said he won’t appear before the senate citing a pending court case.
Reacting to his non-appearance today, lawmakers said Ali’s refusal to
show up because of the letter the clerk of the Senate received from the
office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami
directing the lawmakers to leave Ali alone because the matter was in
court amounted to interference in its duties.
In the lead debate, Senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye said the letter was an affront.
According to Melaye, “What we heard from the Attorney General is an insult.
“How can the Attorney General that we screened in the House tell us
how to carry out our duty. This is the first time in the history of
black Africa that the attorney general is telling the Senate what to do.
“This is not an injunction but a mere court process by a third party
that ran to court and the attorney general wants us to stop our work.
“Our rule says that a matter is already in court cannot be discussed
here but not that a matter on our floor, an individual quickly ran to
court … haba!”
The lawmaker stated that based on the provisions of the Customs Act
and the Pension Reforms Act, Ali was too old to hold a public office
because he was above 60 years old and had worked in public service for
over 35 years.
He said: “Hameed Ali is above 60. He is not qualified to hold the position of the Customs Comptroller General.
“Abaribe moved that Ali be declared unfit and told to resign.”